Sidhu surrenders, sent to Patiala jail

Chandigarh, Jan 11: The Chief Judicial Magistrate today sent cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu in 14-day judicial custody to the Patiala Central Jail.

Sidhu, who had moved an application in the Punjab and Haryana High Court for his surrender and as well of his accomplice, approached Chief Judicial Magistrate Y S Rathore following a direction by the Punjab and Haryana High Court earlier in the day.

The CJM court also sent Rupinder Singh Sandhu, an accomplice of Sidhu in the road rage case, in judical custody.

Earlier in the day, Sidhu, who wanted to surrender before the High Court, was directed by the court to appear before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Chandigarh, who had executed his bail bond on December 8 last year. The direction was given by a division bench, comprising Justice Mehtab Singh Gill and Justice Baldev Singh, on an application filed by Sidhu and his accomplice Rupinder Singh Sandhu in the High Court yesterday for their surrender.

On December 6, Sidhu had been sentenced to three-year imprisonment and fined Rs one lakh by the same bench for causing death of a Patiala resident in an 18-year-old road rage case.

The High court had, however, suspended the sentence and allowed Sidhu to appeal in the Supreme Court till January 31.

The bench had directed Sidhu to appear before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Chandigarh to furnish a Rs one lakh bail bond on December eight.

The High Court had, on December 1, found the 43-year-old Sidhu guilty under section 304-Part-II of the IPC for committing culpable homicide not amounting to murder, overturning his acquittal by a lower court.

Sidhu, a star BJP parliamentarian, had later quit his Lok Sabha seat from Amritsar on moral grounds.

UNI